The specific aim is to develop a method for quantifying brain damage caused by malnutrition in the first year of life, by comparing evoked potentials from infants hospitalized for marasmus (severe malnutrition) with those from normal infants. The research methodology to be used is Fourier analysis of auditory and visual evoked potentials (AEPs and VEPs) from 25 infants (13 male and 12 female) hospitalized for marasmus. EPs were recorded at admission and at discharge for these subjects, and from 49 control subjects. Control groups have been selected to match the marasmic infants for age and sex, at admission and at discharge. The standard method of analysis of the EPs has been applied to these records, but no significant differences in peak amplitudes or arrival times were found. This is because the records were so abnormal that individual peaks could not be reliably identified. Fourier analysis does not depend on peak identification, and thus is particularly well suited for this type of data. I have already done Fourier transform analysis of some of the data, and have found significant differences in the high-frequency content of the AEP between the marasmic and control subjects. The long-term objectives of this research are: (1) to develop a method for detecting brain damage in malnourished infants before they are so ill as to be hospitalized for marasmus; (2) to determine if brain function has returned to normal when the hospital discharge criterion of a normal height/weight ratio is reached; (3) to provide a method of assessing brain damage in malnourished infants (when they are too young for I.Q. tests), which can be used to follow their progress in a consistent way as they grow older.